Overseas staff on the move

Date: 12/09/1996

By Rory Watson

THE first major redeployment of staff in the European Commission's overseas offices is due to be completed by the end of the year as the institution comes to terms with a rapidly changing international environment.

The exercise involves a hefty cut-back and reorganisation of the Commission's presence in Africa so that offices can be strengthened in parts of the world now considered of increasing importance to the Union: Asia, the Mediterranean, Bosnia and certain former Soviet republics.

The changes have involved internal battles within the Commission as Development Commissioner João de Deus Pinheiro tried unsuccessfully to resist the paring down of delegations in various African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under his jurisdiction.

In all, 23 'A' grade posts in the Union's ACP partners are being redeployed, although five of these will be used to reinforce the Commission's activities in southern Africa. In the process, the Commission has broken with precedent and decided that its presence in eight countries can be assured by smaller offices rather than by full-blown delegations as in the past.

The move reflects a new emphasis on the regionalisation of offices and the eight downgraded locations - the Dutch West Indies, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Solomon Islands, São Tomé and Swaziland - are being integrated into regional networks. Other areas where staff are being cut back are Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Grenada, Kenya and Nigeria.

“The philosophy is that we review the system and the network. If we can reinforce regionalisation, we can redeploy people and get a better balanced system,” explained one source.

In addition to the 23 relocated ACP posts, the Commission is strengthening its presence in selected spots around the world by deploying a further 20 officials to add to its overall complement of just over 600 staff of all grades.

While Pinheiro is the main loser from the redeployment exercise as the Union reconsiders its traditional links with its Lomé Convention partners, the main beneficiaries are fellow External Relations Commissioners Hans van den Broek and Manuel Marín.

Van Den Broek, with responsibility for Central and Eastern European Countries and the New Independent States, is overseeing the appointment of four new members of 'A' grade rank in Bosnia, while delegations in Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Romania, Poland and the Slovak Republic will each receive an extra senior official.

With a bailiwick stretching from the Mediterranean to Asia and Latin America, Marín will see additional staff located in Commission offices in Gaza, Algeria, Jordan, the Lebanon, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Argentina and Mexico.

Senior Commission officials are also making it clear that the redeployment is the first step in a more fundamental review. A second stage is already under preparation and will involve, in particular, an analysis of the breakdown between permanent and local staff in the institution's 126 offices around the world.

Although this is likely to have to take account of the outcome of the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations, there is already growing pressure for a better balance between the two categories of official in a bid to reduce costs and to free full-time EU staff from more mundane duties.

Such a policy would again see Pinheiro's overseas development department in the front line, since its 246 Commission fonctionnaires out in the field outnumber local staff by 12 to one.

The Commission believes that its recent reforms have fully responded to criticisms of its overseas delegations policy tabled earlier in the year by the European Parliament.

In a bid to stimulate reforms, MEPs blocked some 10&percent; of the offices' running costs this year. Shortly before Easter, they released 14.5 million ecu of the frozen funds.

The Commission is now pressing for the remaining 2.9 million ecu to be unblocked.